Twice the Love (4 page)

“I agree. You and I’ve been together a long
time, and we’re very happy, but there’s always been something missing––that
piece that only she can provide. With Cherry, I don’t love you any less, but
she makes our love expand even more,” said Lee.

“Exactly. But do you think she won’t understand
how much we love her because we don’t hold her hand as we walk down the street?
I’ve seen American men with their hands all over their women as they walk. I
could never do that. I’m too Asian.”

“I think she’ll understand. She’s a very smart
woman, our Cherry, but at home we need to relax more. Our English is formal and
stilted, and she may misunderstand our feelings if we can’t speak more
colloquially when we’re alone.”

“I can do that. She’s given up so much to join
us, so we must make her feel welcome and appreciated. It’d break my heart if
she left us now. Already she’s carved a niche deep inside me, that only she can
fill,” said Harry.

“Did you watch her face when we took her to the
Forbidden City
? Her eyes were huge as she gazed
everywhere. She was soaking up our culture like a sponge, and so obviously
enjoying everything.”

“And the questions she asked were very
discerning. She must think about everything she sees. She definitely wants to
understand our lives. That’s a good sign, I think.”

“Our ancestors were smiling on us the day we
joined that message board,” concluded Lee.

****

That night in bed the men were very gentle with
Cherry.

“Are you sore? We can massage you with soothing
gel before you go to sleep,” said Harry.

“My ass is a bit tender, but not too bad. Gel
might be good, though, if you want to do that again in the next day or so. I
really liked having you both inside me at once. That was incredibly erotic,”
replied Cherry.

“And … what about if Harry fucks you while I
fuck him?” asked Lee, hesitating.

“You were together long before I knew you. You
should continue to do what you want. Besides, I think it might be rather hot
watching you fuck each other, especially if I’m involved as well.”

“Thank you. Your acceptance means a lot to us.”

Harry pushed Cherry onto her back and quickly
rolled a condom on his cock, then lay on top of her, nuzzling her breasts,
kissing her jawline and sucking her earlobes as Lee squirted lube into his ass
and scissored his fingers to stretch the other man.

Cherry could feel Harry’s cock, huge and hot on
her belly. She kissed him feverishly, wanting it inside her. But he lay quite
still, pressing her body into the mattress, and maintaining his steady progress
in kissing her face.

Finally she grabbed his head, held it still and
thrust her tongue deep into his mouth. He lost some of his control then,
kissing her back passionately and sucking on her tongue, but still made no
attempt to enter her hungry cunt.

“Oh Cherry, you’re tormenting me and making it
so hard to wait,” Harry groaned when they finally broke apart.

Lee was at last satisfied Harry’s ass was ready
for him as Harry moved between Cherry’s legs and thrust his cock into her wet,
needy core.

He held still and Lee slid easily into his ass,
then the two men began thrusting in tandem, Harry into Cherry, and Lee into
Harry.

Cherry grabbed onto Harry’s shoulders and simply
held on for the ride. Harry was leaner and less muscular than Lee, but still
quite broad-shouldered and strong. He was also the more gentle and perceptive
of the two. She could feel every move both men made, and an aching need shot
straight through her. It was as though both men were fucking her, their thrusts
slow and deep, pressing inside her, arousing her to her very core.

The power and maleness of their fucking was also
incredibly erotic. Cherry’s breath hitched just from being part of it. Her
nails dug into Harry’s muscular shoulders, and she spread her legs wider,
giving him more space to thrust. She inched her feet up on the mattress until
her soles were planted flat and she was able to lift her hips higher into his,
crushing her clit on his pelvis with each stroke and receiving an extra zing
from Lee powering into Harry’s ass as well.

“Yes, so good,” she whispered, grinding her clit
into Harry again.

Sweat was sheening Harry’s face and she knew he
was hanging on to his control by a thread, waiting until she and Lee were ready
to come too.

Again she pressed her clit into his pelvis,
feeling the extra thrust from Lee tighten the coil of need building in her
core.

She took one hand off Harry’s shoulders and
stretched it around farther to rest on Lee’s hip. As he pushed into Harry she
dug her nails into him, hoping he would find it a pleasurable addition to their
lovemaking.

On Harry’s next thrust she swirled her hips,
which added pressure to her G-spot as well as to her clit.

Harry let go of her and reached around behind
himself forcing his fingers into Lee’s butt crack. Cherry felt Lee jerk as
Harry’s finger obviously found an erotic spot and in the next few moments both
men erupted powerfully. Cherry felt it all and twisted her hips sharply again,
which was enough to bring her to climax too.

“The two of you together like this––it’s so very
carnal. Thank you for letting me share in it,” she panted.

“You’re part of us now. We want you to be happy
you chose to join us. We three are better together than two could ever be.
Thank you for agreeing to make us a threesome.”

“I have nothing to go back to
America
for. I
want this relationship to work,” she replied. Realizing that sounded a bit
selfish, Cherry added, “You’ve both been very kind and welcoming. I appreciate
everything you’ve done to look after me, and the sex has been excellent.”

Still feeling she hadn’t answered them very
well, Cherry slipped out of bed into the bathroom to clean up, then lay down to
sleep. As they had the previous night, the two men slid into bed, one on either
side of her, and while not precisely cuddling, did make her feel a part of them
as they slept.

****

The next morning, the two men moved like
well-oiled machinery: showering and shaving, preparing breakfast, packing their
briefcases and getting ready for work.

Harry ensured she had their cell numbers, and
urged her to call them if she was worried about anything. Then the men left.

Cherry went back to bed and slept for another
hour, then cleaned and tidied the house, changed the sheets and towels and did
a load of laundry, hanging it out to dry on the line in the courtyard.

She wandered around the small space, looking at
the fish in the pond, pulling a few weeds out of the potted plants, feeling the
ripeness of a pomegranate on the tree, and generally just familiarizing herself
with the area.

Next she walked around the few blocks to the
shops. She didn’t really need to buy anything, but she wanted to prove to
herself she’d remembered the way there and back. Plus, it was good to be outside
in the warm sunshine.

She allowed plenty of time to cook the dinner
and carefully tasted everything, hoping she got the spices the way the men
liked them.

And so her days went for the next few weeks,
keeping the tiny house and the courtyard spic-and-span, learning to cook for
her men, discovering the nearby neighborhood, coming to know which shops sold
the items she wanted, getting a feel for the currency and the prices, which
seemed very cheap to her, and adjusting to her new life.

She even cooked a few of her favorite dishes for
Lee and Harry and found them to be adventurous eaters, willing to try almost
anything and appreciative of her introducing them to new tastes and styles of
food.

                                   
****

Mr. Wang, who lived in the first house in the
courtyard, was a very old gentleman who sometimes sat outside in the sun. He
always nodded and smiled at Cherry, even inviting her to sit with him several
times. Unfortunately he knew almost no English, so their time together was limited
to him pointing to plants, or the sky, smiling and nodding.

Cherry had the distinct feeling he approved of
her being there, which was a relief. She wanted to belong, to be accepted. But
it was also intensely frustrating. She wanted to be able to chat with him. To
talk to him about his long life and the things he remembered from this
neighborhood in days gone by. She wanted to hear stories about Harry and Lee
that he’d know from their pasts. She wanted to be connected to her new home,
and pointing and smiling wasn’t enough. Cherry just knew this old man would be
her friend, if only they could communicate better.

She’d spoken briefly to Mr. Zheng a few times,
but he did seem to be away from home a lot. At the
Shanghai
offices of his company, she assumed.
She really hoped they’d be able to talk more when he was not so busy. He was
such a close-by neighbor, that she really wanted to know more about him.

The local shopkeepers smiled at her as she
visited their stores, but it frustrated her that all she could do was point to
the things she wanted to buy, not ask questions or have a conversation. Would
cherries come into season here soon? What was the name of that strange orange
fruit? Or was it a vegetable? And if so, what would it taste like, and how
should she cook it?

Every day she checked her email, but almost
never received any messages. It was as if she’d disappeared off the face of the
Earth, not simply left town. Evidently her friends had moved on with their
lives and forgotten her. And that hurt.

One morning Cherry got up, saw her men off to
work, and realized she had absolutely nothing she needed to do until it was
time to cook the evening meal—no friends to visit with, no one needing her, no
employment. Her thirtieth birthday was just a few weeks away, and this was
going to be her life for the next forty years or so. She didn’t even really
know what their jobs involved and who their friends were. In fact, she knew
almost nothing more about them than when she’d arrived here, although they were
always unfailingly sweet and considerate to her.

Cherry folded her arms on the dining table, laid
her head down and cried.

She cried for her lost life in
America
. A job
she hadn’t loved, but which she’d been good at.

She cried for her friends who hadn’t called her
on her new phone despite it having international roaming facilities, and most
of whom hadn’t emailed her either, although she’d made a point of emailing them
all a couple of times since she’d arrived, telling them what she was doing,
about Beijing, and giving them her new cell phone number.

She cried for her lack of a family. For parents
who’d divorced when she was small and neither of whom had really wanted her in
their lives. For a father and mother who hadn’t kept in touch with her, despite
her sending them newsy letters about her life a couple of times each year.

She cried for Lee and Harry, who’d been kind and
gentle, respectful and patient with her, and who’d invested so much in her in
the hope that this would be a mutually beneficial ongoing arrangement. She
cried because they deserved so much better than she felt she could give them.

Both men had always been slightly on the outer
fringes of Chinese society because they were part American. Although they
looked quite Chinese, there were distinct differences from the average Han man
of their age. Their eyes were a little rounder, their bodies more solid and
muscular, and they were a fraction taller. Also, being bisexual had always been
a reason for them to maintain their privacy. It was only very recently that
homosexuality was acknowledged as neither illegal nor a mental illness in
China
, and the
idea of bisexuality within a ménage couldn’t be openly practiced, even now.

She was not at all surprised they’d come
together and found a kindred spirit in each other. In some ways their attitude
to life was more American than Asian. The biggest difference in them was their
ability to think and act outside the Chinese mainstream culture. Hence their
decision to look for a woman to join them on an Internet message board.

Cherry had been drawn to the idea of moving
somewhere overseas first, then to the men and to
China
. She’d firmly believed the
only way to give herself a completely fresh start and a whole new life was to
leave her old one totally behind. She’d never expected to be lonely, though.
She’d been solitary and self-sufficient since she was a young child. But
although she’d been alone she’d never imagined that she would be as isolated as
she was now.

So she also cried for herself. She’d come to
China
to live
with two men with her eyes wide open. She’d known what she was giving up and
what she was doing. She’d thought it would be exciting, exploring a new land,
making new friends, a new family, a whole new life. Instead her life was a tiny
circle of housework, cooking and walking a few blocks to shops where she
couldn’t even hold a proper conversation with the people. She didn’t even know
all their names.